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July 1842
Chadwick's Sanitary Conditions report
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Edwin Chadwick, social reformer and secretary to the Poor Law Commissioners,
publishes his report The Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population
of Great Britain. Collating evidence from doctors all over Britain,
the report links unhygienic housing to disease and calls for a sewage
disposal system and clean piped water.
His recommendations are not purely philanthropic – when wage
earners fall ill, families claim poor relief, and Chadwick is eager to
prevent this (see 1838 Poor Law extended
to Ireland). In response, the government sets up royal commissions,
which report in 1844 and 1845. Meanwhile, water companies, local authorities
and rate-payers up and down the country argue that it is not up to them
to foot the bill.
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